Not to miss

Corn Islands

Big and Little Corn Islands (Islas del Maíz) are veritable tropical paradises in an isolated corner of the Caribbean. Both islands boast clear turquoise water, white sandy beaches fringed with coconut palms, excellent fishing, phenomenal coral reefs to explore and an unhurried, peaceful pace.

Bluefields

Bluefields is no beauty; the town's prim Victorian charm was blown away in 1988 by monster Hurricane Juana. It was rebuilt with little thought for aesthetics, but its nice hotels, great restaurants and multi-ethnic party scene make it a good base for visiting the glorious rainforest reserves nearby.

Playa Madera

This stunning beach, with rocky expanses that offer excellent tidepooling and wide, wonderful sandy stretches for sunbathing, is famed for having one of the best beach breaks in the country. It's a slow wave in fairly deep water, good for beginners, with four breaks that get hollow on a rising tide.

If swell is really big on a low to medium tide, there's a faster, intermediate level reef break between Madera and Majagual called Panga Drops, accessible by boat only, that offers an awesome ride before dumping you onto the rocky shallows. It gets choppy and you can be caught in the shore break, so watch the wind; it also gets sneaker sets, so stay alert. Waves get big - as do crowds, and it doesn't hold a crowd well.

Convento y Museo San Francisco

Central America's oldest church, and Granada's most striking building, the Iglesia San Francisco's bright blue facade resembles a big, gaudy cake. Constructed in 1585, it has been burnt down and rebuilt a couple of times since then, and most recently restored in 1989. Inside, you will find the region's best museum.

The church's museum includes a display of papier-mâché Indians engaged in various activities, some great primitivist art, and a scale model of Granada. But its main claim to fame is the Zapatera statuary: big black basalt statues carved sometime between AD 800 and 1200, discovered on the ancient ceremonial island of Zapatera in the 1880s, and brought together in Granada in the 1920s.

Fortaleza El Coyotepe

Built in 1893, the eerie hilltop Forteleza Coyotepe is worth the climb just for the view: Laguna de Masaya, Lago de Managua, Volcán Mombacho and, if it's clear, Volcán Momotombo, rising red and black above Managua. Its historic significance is profound: it was here that Benjamín Zeledón, the 1912 hero of resistance to US intervention, drew his last breath.

Zeledón's death was not in vain. The marines may have managed to take the fortress, but they were watched all the while by a certain young man named Sandino, who vowed his revenge... In the end Fortaleza El Coyotepe would be overrun during Sandinista's final 1979 offensive.

Your entrance fee, a donation to the Nicaraguan boy scouts, includes a Spanish-language tour of the underground prison, detailing each daily atrocity.

To get there, you can walk 2km (1.6mi) north on the Interamericana (Pan-American Hwy), but it's worth getting a Managua-bound bus or taxi to avoid the scary traffic. Taxis charge extra to take you up steep Cerro de los Coyotes, otherwise it's a sweaty half-hour hike.